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Welcome to Software Development on Codidact!

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Q&A Is *nix a formal term?

The term is cultural, not technical. From Wikipedia: There is no standard for defining the term, and some difference of opinion is possible as to the degree to which a given operating system or ...

posted 3y ago by r~~‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar r~~‭ · 2021-04-09T08:13:57Z (about 3 years ago)
The term is cultural, not technical. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like):

 > There is no standard for defining the term, and some difference of opinion is possible as to the degree to which a given operating system or application is "Unix-like".

There do exist standards, most notably the various POSIX standards and the Single UNIX Specification, which can be used as a rough gauge for whether a system is Unix-like. But an OS doesn't have to conform perfectly to those standards to be considered a *nix. Conversely, compatibility layers that implement those standards can be implemented for OSes that are generally not considered *nices.

Ultimately, like many cultural terms, the real definition of a *nix is something that is similar enough, in whatever ways matter most in context, to all the other things that we call *nices.